United States v. Jimmy Charles Stroup

Stroup and one Kirk were jointly charged with violating the Dyer Act ( 18 U.S.C. § 2311 ), transporting a stolen motor vehicle in interstate commerce, knowing that it had been stolen. Stroup was tried alone and convicted. We affirm.

The principal argument is that the evidence is insufficient. The car was stolen in Chowchilla, California, at night. The next afternoon Stroup and Kirk were arrested in the car in Arizona, heading East. They were 89 miles from the California border. Kirk was driving; Stroup sat next to him. Stroup said that he and Kirk had been acquainted for ten years or more, that he did not know how Kirk acquired the car, and that Kirk had had the car for three days. Stroup also said that he had been with Kirk during those days, having left Richmond, California, with Kirk, in the car, three days before. If this were all of the evidence, as Stroup’s counsel positively asserts, the case against Stroup would be very thin. Lawrence v. United States, 9 Cir., 1968, 400 F.2d 624 . But there is more.

The owner of the car testified that he had turned the car over to his step-son, one Blair, to use as he saw fit. Blair testified that he parked the car immediately outside…